Bigfork Eagle flies again; on newsstands today

After a nearly four-year hiatus, the Bigfork Eagle has landed — again.

The weekly newspaper that was published for 39 years before ending its print publication in late 2015 is back in circulation as of today, and will be published each Wednesday.

“Readers of the old Eagle may notice an immediate difference in page size. Instead of the traditional broadsheet style of newspaper, we opted for a tabular format to give our readers a more portable version of the paper and our staff more flexibility with design,” Publisher Rick Weaver said.

Daily Inter Lake reporter Mackenzie Reiss will have day-to-day oversight of the Eagle as the paper’s editor.

“Mackenzie has put a lot of effort into the design and we’re excited to present a fresh look and feel for our readership,” Weaver said. “As things move forward, Mackenzie will continue to have oversight of the Eagle, but she won’t be working alone. The Eagle will feature contributions from other Daily Inter Lake staffers who have well over 100 years of combined journalism experience serving readers of the Flathead Valley. In fact, we have more folks in our newsrooms in Northwest Montana than any other news outlet in this part of the state, and it is our plan to put that experience to good use in the relaunch of the Eagle. At the forefront of that charge will be two of our department managers at the Inter Lake — Managing Editor Matt Baldwin and Advertising Director Anton Kaufer.”

The Bigfork Eagle was first published in 1976 by accountant Dale Jay Singer, a Bigfork transplant by way of Missoula.

Graphic artist Terry Licence bought the paper in February 1979, and designed a new logo for the paper, featuring a flying eagle with its wings extended. For a time, disagreement over school politics resulted in the birth of a rival paper, the Mountain Standard Times, published by former Eagle editor Bill Cenis with partners Mike and Annie Dockstader. They were eventually bought out by local businessman Bruce Peck, who released the Times for free, once each week from October 1978 until Licence purchased the paper and swiftly folded it in March 1979.

On June 1, 1983, Licence sold the paper and relocated to take over a larger publication in Estes Park, Colorado. Marc and Ginny Wilson ran the Eagle in partnership with Robert P. Dalton, who formerly worked for the Associated Press along with Marc. They were three “big city journalists … who’d long dreamed of owning our own newspaper.”

Wilson wrote in a 2016 column for Newspapers and Technology Magazine. “If we’d known what we were doing, we probably wouldn’t have bought the paper — but our time at the Eagle was among the most memorable years of our lives.”

Under the Wilsons, the Eagle boasted a strong opinion page and regular columns along with pointed yet entertaining cartoons by local wildlife artist Elmer Sprunger.

“Elmer was a great artist who would get paid thousands of dollars for doing a painting … but he loved cartooning,” Wilson said. “For $12 a week he did these great cartoons for the Eagle.”

In 1986, the Eagle added a print shop to its repertoire, necessitating a move to a building on Montana 35. For four years, the Eagle also took home the award for best weekly paper in the state.

“We used to call ourselves the best little weekly newspaper in Montana,” Wilson said in an interview with Reiss.

The paper enjoyed great support from the local business community and was integral in fostering community dialogue and a sense of identity for Bigfork.

“There really is a need in a little unincorporated town for something that holds things together,” Wilson said.

The Bigfork Eagle was also among the first news outlets to publish online. The Eagle went live in 1996 as part of the TownNews.com network, a content management company Wilson founded in the back room of the Eagle.

Wilson ran the paper for a total of 14 years, alongside his wife Ginny, before selling the Eagle to devote his full attention to TownNews. The Bigfork Eagle was purchased by Lee Enterprises. In the early 2000s, Hagadone Corp., which owns the Daily Inter Lake, purchased the Eagle along with five other Montana weeklies, including the Hungry Horse News and Whitefish Pilot. The changing economic landscape and rise of the digital marketplace forced Hagadone to shut down the print edition of the Eagle in December 2015, and instead publish content online.

The idea of resurrecting the Bigfork Eagle began with a town hall meeting attended by Bigfork folks who had decided they wanted their local paper back.

With help from the Bigfork Chamber of Commerce and residents and local businesses of Bigfork, that musing became a reality for Hagadone.

“As a Flathead Valley native, I am extremely pleased and proud of the folks that have made this new version of the Eagle possible,” Weaver said.” With your help and support, the Bigfork Eagle will once again serve the Bigfork community for years to come.”